Continuous elevator

ABSTRACT

A continuous elevator comprising a number of flexible merchandise-carrying gratings carried by pairs of endless chains so as to permit transfer vertically between different floors of a warehouse or depository.

United States Patent Takashi Katayama No. 1285-13 Onoda, Onoda-shi, Yamaguchi-ken, Japan Feb. 17, 1970 Jan. 4, 1972 Inventor App], No. Filed Patented CONTINUOUS ELEVATOR 3 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs.

us. Cl

1 98/l 54 lm. Cl 865g 17/04 [50] Field of Search 198/l53, I54 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,l84,039 5/1965 Czarnecki I98/ I 53 X 3,223,260 12/1965 Bright 198/154 X Primary Examiner-Edward A. Sroka AttorneyStevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher ABSTRACT: A continuous elevator comprising a number of flexible merchandise-carrying gratings carried by pairs of endless chains so as to permit transfer vertically between different floors of a warehouse or depository.

PATENTEUJAN M972 3,631,986

SHEET 1 0F 6 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS PATENTEDJAN 41972 3.631.966

SHEET 2 OF 6 FIG.2

PATENTEDJAN M972 3.631.966

' sum u [1F 6 U1 U ITLI 11 m u FIGS CONTINUOUS ELEVATOR DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART In the prior art handling of goods or merchandise into or out of a warehouse or depository or between different floors of the same building, forklifts have been used. Since the forklifts have to be operated frequently in a very restricted space in such case, they consume a great deal of time and labor. Moreover, since the goods-carrying capacity of the individual forklift is limited, it is very difficult to handle a large amount of goods in a relatively short time. The present invention has been devised to overcome above-mentioned difficulties of the conventional goods-handling device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a continuous elevator, more particularly to a continuous elevator comprising a number of flexible merchandise-carrying gratings carried by pairs of endless chains.

Object of the present invention is to provide a continuous elevator Operable vertically between different floors of a warehouse or depository by action of a set of endless chains conveyors having flexible merchandise-carrying gratings so as to transfer the merchandise continuously and automatically in a vertical direction thereby saving the time and labor required for the handling of goods.

According to the present invention, there is provided a continuous elevator for transferring merchandise vertically between a number of platforms superimposed one over the other at a predetermined spacing, comprising at least two pairs of endless conveyor chains each entrained about a driving sprocket and a pair of idler sprockets respectively mounted at upper and lower ends of an elevator shaft and having a number of merchandise-carrying gratings connected between said two pairs of said conveyor chains at a suitable spacing, and an elevating cage suspended from the uppermost portion of said elevator shaft so as to be moved vertically therein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Now, preferable embodiments of the continuous elevator device according to the present invention will be described in detail hereinafter by way of examples with reference to accompanying drawings, in which,

FIG. 1 is a vertical section view showing the continuous elevator according to the present invention, together with a number of floors of a building,

FIG. 2 is a perspective view in enlarged scale showing the elevator according to the present invention,

FIG. 3 is an end view showing a merchandise-carrying grating which is connected between pairs of endless conveyor chains,

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the merchandise-carrying grating in FIG. 3,

FIG. 5 is a side elevation view showing the merchandise-can rying grating in FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a vertical section view showing a variation of the embodiment of the elevator device as shown in FIG. 1,

FIG. 7 is a vertical section view showing another variation of the embodiment of the elevator device as shown in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 8 is a perspective view in enlarged scale showing a portion marked Kin FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Now, referring to drawings, particularly FIG. 1, a number of merchandise storage platforms on floors e,, e e e e e,', e e e e -superimposed over the base floor F at a suitable spacing are shown. A prime mover m, such as an electric motor, is installed on the platform which is located over the uppermost merchandise storage platform e,, e,'. A driving drum 1 of the prime mover m is operatively connected to a revolving drum 2 by means of power-transmitting members 3, such as belts or chains. A rotating drum 4, is mounted on a shaft of the above-mentioned revolving drum 2. A wire 5 is wound around the rotating drum 4 with one end thereof secured to the latter, and has the other end connected to a cage 3 through a guide sheave 7 supported by a support member 6 which is mounted on the platfonn u, u, so as to cause the cage 8 to be lifted and lowered within an elevator shaft d which is located to pierce all of the merchandise storage platforms.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cage g is provided with a set of deflecting sprockets 8,, 8,, 8 8 rotatably mounted therein in front and rear portion on both sides meiear, provided with another a set of deflecting sprockets 9,, 9,, 9 ,9 mounted on one side of the above-mentioned deflecting sprockets 8,, 8, for causing a merchandise carrying grating c to be moved horizontally, which is to be described in detail hereinafter, and further provided with still another set of deflecting sprockets 10, 10' rotatably mounted thereon for guiding'ior adjusting inner endless conveyor chains a, a, which will=be described in detail hereinafter, downwardly. V

As shown in FIG. 1, a set of deflecting sprockets 11,, 11,, 11 11 and 12,, 12,, 12 12 are rotatably mounted within the elevator shaft d adjacent to uppermost end thereof. And another set of deflecting sprockets are rotatably mounted on the base floor F within the elevator shaft d. Furthermore still another set of deflecting sprockets 15,, 15,, 15 15 16,, 16,, 16 16 for the endless conveyor chains are mounted. on the base floor F. The sprockets 16,, 16,, 16 16 16 con; stitute driving sprockets. A driving wheel 17 of the prime. mover H, such as an electric motor, located on the base floor F is operatively connected to a rotating wheel 18 by means of power transmitting members 19, such as belts or chains. A rotating wheel 20 of small diameter mounted on a shaft of the above-mentioned rotating wheel 18 is operatively connected to a driving wheel 21, which is mounted on a shaft of the above-mentioned deflecting sprockets 16,, 16,, 16 16 by means of suitable power-transmitting members 22 such as belts or chains.

As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, connecting chains 23, 23, inner endless chains a, a, and outer endless chains b, b are disposed side by side from the inside to the outside. A suitable number 11 in the drawing) of transverse rods 25 placed in parallel to each other are connected to lugs p, p-formed on roller link plates 24, 24 of the chains 23, 23. Transverse rods 26, 27 are passed through sleeve members s of the chains 23, 23 at both ends thereby. The transverse rod 26 is connected to pin link plates 28, 28 of the inner endless chains a, a by means of I-shaped fittings 29, 29, and the transverse link 27 is connected to pin link plates 30, 30 of the outer endless chains b, b by means of I-shaped fittings 31, 31. All the transverse rods 25, 26 27 supported by the chains 23, 23 will form a single flexible merchandise carrying grating c as a whole. A suitable number of flexible merchandise-carrying grantings r: are connected to the inner and outer endless chains a, a, b, b at a suitable spacing along the whole length thereof.

A pair of inner endless chains a, a are transmitted over the driving sprockets and various deflecting idler sprockets in a similar manner, and hence the single endless chain a will be described in terms of its way of leading. The inner endless chain a is trained over the driving sprocket 16,, led to the left as viewed in FIG. 2 and passed around the bottom deflecting sprocket 15,, led upwardly to pass over overhead deflecting sprockets 11, and 12,, led down upwardly to pass around deflecting sprockets l0, 9,, 8, within the cage g, and further downwardly to pass around the deflecting sprocket 13 and then returned to the driving sprocket 16,.

A pair of outer endless chains b, b are trained over the driving sprockets and various deflecting idler sprockets in a similar manner and hence the single endless chain b will be described. The outer endless chain b is trained over the driving sprocket 16,, led to the left as viewed in FIG. 2 and passed around the bottom deflecting sprocket l5,, led upwardly to pass over overhead deflecting sprockets 11, and 12,, led downwardly to pass around deflecting sprockets 9, and 8, within the cage 3, and further downwardly to pass around the deflecting sprocket l4 and then returned to the driving sprocket 16,.

The inner end outer endless chains 0, a, b, b can be moved in one direction or the other by changing the direction of rotation of the prime mover H.

Also, there are provided various switches for the prime mover, support members for the merchandise storage platforms, and a number of idler sprockets for guiding the chains 23, 23. However, no detailed description will be given further in connection with these members, since they do not have any bearing on the merit of the present invention directly.

In operation, when it is desired to transfer the merchandise y placed on the base floor F onto the merchandise storage platform e, as shown in FIG. 1, the cage 8 will be brought into the level of the platform e, by winding the wire by driving the prime mover m installed on the installation platform u, and then the prime mover H on the base floor F will be operated.

Then, the inner and outer endless chains a, a, b, b will be driven in a direction as shown by arrowhead in FIG. 2 by action of the driving sprockets 16,, 16,, 16, and 16,. When the transverse rods 25,26, 27 are wide spread to form a merchanand will move vertically having the merchandisecarrying gratdisecarrying grating c, while the chain 23, 23 run along the base floor F, the merchandise y may be placed thereon. The merchandise y placed on the grating 0 will be lifted up as the inner and outer endless chains 0, a, b, b are operated. And when the transverse rods, 25, 26, 27 on the chains 23, 23 forming the grating c are passed over the deflecting sprockets 8,, 8,, 8,, 8, and another set of deflecting sprockets 9,, 9,, 9,, 9, within the cage 3 in a horizontal condition in a direction as shown by arrowhead in FIG. 2, the merchandise y will be unloaded from the grating c to the platform e,. The flexible merchandise-carrying grating c, which was emptied in this manner, will be moved upwardly through the deflecting idler sprockets 10, 10 by means of the chains 23, 23 and the inner and outer endless chains a, a, b, b, passed over the overhead deflecting sprockets 12,, 12,, 12,, 12, and 11,, 11,, from whence led downwardly to pass over the deflecting sprockets adjacent to the base floor F and returned to the original condition. By repeating this operation, the merchandise y placed on the base floor F will be continuously transferred to the platfonn 42,. Also, the merchandise y on the platform e, may be continuously transferred to the base floor F. On the other hand, the merchandise y can be loaded continuously and easily onto any desired platform from the base floor F or in a reverse direction by causing the cage g to be moved to and maintained at the level of the desired platform within the elevator shaft d by driving the prime mover m.

FIG. 6 shows a second embodiment of the continuous elevator according to the present invention. The structure of this embodiment differs from that of the first embodiment as shown hereinabove only in that the deflecting sprockets 8,, 8, and the deflecting sprockets 9,, 9, within the cage 3 as shown in FIG. 2 are merged together, the deflecting sprockets 9,, 9, are mounted on the same shaft as that of the deflecting sprockets 8,, 8,, the deflecting sprockets 10, 10 for the inner and outer endless chains 0, a, b, b are mounted on the cage 3 in the upper and lower part thereof, the uppermost sun of the inner endless chain a, a is divided into two parts adjacent to the top end of the elevator shaft d and additional deflecting sprockets 32, 33 are provided respectively in this portion of the elevator shaft so as to guide the inner and outer endless chains 0, a, b, b. The second embodiment is similar to the first embodiment in all other respects and no further description will be given. Also, the operation of loading and unloading of the merchandise onto and out of the platform 2,, is similar to that of the first embodiment, and therefore the detailed description will be omitted.

FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 show a third embodiment according to the present invention. Two sets of prime movers n, n similar to that of the first embodiment are installed on the installation platform v, v which are provided over a number of merchandise storage platforms superimposed one above the other. A pair of rotating drums 41, 41' mounted on the same shaft as that of a pair of rotating drums 41, 41 driven by the prime mover n, n have a pair of wires 42, 42' wound therearound with one end of each wire respectively secured thereon. These wires 42, 42' are connected respectively at the other ends thereof to cages Q, R through deflecting sheaves 43, 43 rotatably supported on the support frame Z of trapezoided form fixedly mounted on the installation platform v, v. Both cages Q, R may be operated separately one from the other. Similar to the embodiment in FIG. 2, the deflecting sprockets 44, 44, 45, 45, 46, 46', 47, 47 are rotatably mounted on both cages Q, R on four comers in the upper portion thereof. Further, the cage Q is provided with deflecting sprockets 48, 48, 49, 49' similar to the deflecting sprockets as shown in FIG. 2 and with deflecting sprockets 50, 50' for guiding the inner endless chains a, a. On the other hand, by mounting both pairs of deflecting sprockets 51,, 51,, 51,, 51, for the inner and outer endless chains 0, a, b, b on the same shaft in the cage R as shown in FIG. 8, the inner and outer endless chains a, a, b, b will run in a horizontal condition within the cage Q, R and at the upper and lower end of the elevator shaft d, will go upwardly in a spreadout condition between both cages Q and R,

ing c in the same plane in the area outside the space as described hereinabove.

The inner and outer endless chains a, a, b, b may be operated in one direction or the other by driving pairs of deflecting sprockets 15,, 15,, 15,, 15,, 16,, 16, provided at a point adjacent to the base floor F, where the endless chains will change the direction of movement, by means of the prime mover I-I through intervention of suitable power transmission members 19.

Now, when the cages Q, R are respectively maintained at the level of the merchandise storage platform e, and the base floor F by manipulating the wire 42, 42' as shown in FIG. 7, the prime mover H is started and the merchandise y is shifted onto the flexible grating c from the base floor F, the flexible grating c holding the merchandise y thereon will go upwardly within the elevator shaft d until it comes into the cage 0. The inner and outer endless chains a, a, b, b will move in a horizontal condition thereby transferring the merchandise y' toward the merchandise storage platform e, so that the merchandise y may be loaded on the platform e, easily by an operation. The inner and outer endless chains a, a, b, b having the merchandisecarrying grating c emptied will go upwardly, pass over the overhead deflecting sprockets 11, 11,, 11,, 11,, 12,, 12,, 12,,12, within the elevator shaft d, from whence come downwardly together with the flexible merchandisecarrying grating c, and then pass around the bottom deflecting sprockets 15,, 15,, 15,, 15,, 16,, 16,, 16,, 16, adjacent to the base floor F so as to return to the original position. By repeating the abovementioned process, the merchandise y on the base floor F may be continuously transferred to the merchandise storage platform e Conversely, the merchandise y, on the platform e, may be continuously transferred to the base floor F by operating the prime mover H in the opposite direction. v

Also, if both cages Q, R are respectively held at the level of the platform e, and e the merchandise y, on the platfonn e, may be transferredto the platform e, and vice versa. That is to say, by using the elevator according to the present embodiment, the merchandise may be continuously transferred between any two desired platforms by stopping both cages Q and R respectively at desired platforms.

According to the present invention, the merchandise can be loaded into and out of any platform by moving the cage or cages between superimposed within the elevator shaft d so as to hold it at the desired platform.

The flexible merchandisecarrying grating c interconnected with the endless chains will pass through the upper and lower end portions of the elevator shaft without being subjected to any obstacle and will move vertically most of the time. Therefore, time required for loading and unloading of the merchandise will be greatly reduced.

According to the present invention, the space required for installing the elevator device will be also saved. Since the merchandise is almost automatically and continuously loaded into and unloaded out of the platform, the merchandisehandling efficiency will be considerably increased over the prior art merchandisehandling apparatus. Since the deflecting sprockets for guiding the inner endless chains downwardly are mounted on the cage which is movably provided within the elevator shaft, a difference of travel between the inner and outer endless chains during passage of the flexible grating c through the horizontal run of the endless chains within the cage will be well accommodated thus resulting in no interruption of running. And, the inner and outer endless chains are operated in union at all times. In the case of the elevator device having a pair of cages moving separately within the elevator shaft the merchandise may be transferred conveniently between a pair of desired platforms. Since there is no complicated structure in the elevator device, it can be constructed economically. And, since the device is constructed ruggedly, there will no malfunction.

What is claimed is:

1. A continuous elevator for transferring merchandise vertically between a number of platforms superimposed one over the other at a predetermined spacing, comprising at least two pairs of endless conveyor chains each entrained about a driving sprocket and a pair of idler sprockets respectively mounted at upper and lower ends of an elevator shaft and having a number of merchandisecarrying gratings connected between said two pairs of said conveyor chains at a suitable spacing, a rotating drum, means driving said rotating drum, said driving means being mounted on a platform located over the uppermost merchandise storage platform, and an elevating v cage suspended from the uppermost portion of said elevator shaft so as to be moved vertically therein.

2. A continuous elevator for transferring merchandise vertically between a number of platforms superimposed one over the other at a predetermined spacing, comprising at least two pairs of endless conveyor chains each entrained about a driving sprocket and a pair of idler sprockets respectively mounted at upper and lower ends of an elevator shaft and having a number of merchandisecarrying gratings connected between said two pairs of said conveyor chains at a suitable spacing, and an elevating cage suspended from the uppermost portion of said elevator shaft so as to be moved vertically therein wherein said cage is provided with a number of deflecting sprockets for spreading out said merchandisecarrying grating, a number of deflecting sprockets for causing the merchandisecarrying grating to be moved in a horizontal condition and a number of deflecting sheaves for guiding the inner endless chains downwardly.

3. A continuous elevator described in claim 1, characterized in that another vertically movable cage is provided within the elevator shaft separately from said elevating cage, said another cage is provided with a number of deflecting sprockets for spreading out the flexible grating and a number of deflecting sprockets for causing the inner and outer endless chains to be moved in a horizontal condition. 

1. A continuous elevator for transferring merchandise vertically between a number of platforms superimposed one over the other at a predetermined spacing, comprising at least two pairs of endless conveyor chains each entrained about a driving sprocket and a pair of idler sprockets respectively mounted at upper and lower ends of an elevator shaft and having a number of merchandisecarrying gratings connected between said two pairs of said conveyor chains at a suitable spacing, a rotating drum, means driving said rotating drum, said driving means being mounted on a platform located over the uppermost merchandise storage platform, and an elevating cage suspended from the uppermost portion of said elevator shaft so as to be moved vertically therein.
 2. A continuous elevator for transferring merchandise vertically between a number of platforms superimposed one over the other at a predetermined spacing, comprising at least two pairs of endless conveyor chains each entrained about a driving sprocket and a pair of idler sprockets respectively mounted at upper and lower ends of an elevator shaft and having a number of merchandise-carrying gratings connected between said two pairs of said conveyor chains at a suitable spacing, and an elevating cage suspended from the uppermost portion of said elevator shaft so as to be moved vertically therein wherein said cage is provided with a number of deflecting sprockets for spreading out said merchandise-carrying grating, a number of deflecting sprockets for causing the merchandise-carrying grating to be moved in a horizontal condition and a number of deflecting sheaves for guiding the inner endless chains downwardly.
 3. A continuous elevator described in claim 1, characterized in that another vertically movable cage is provided within the elevator shaft separately from said elevating cage, said another cage is provided with a number of deflecting sprockets for spreading out the flexible grating and a number of deflecting sprockets for causing the inner and outer endless chains to be moved in a horizontal condition. 